Water storage and pressure maintainer for well pumps



June 2, 1970 c, H N, JR 3,515,172

WATER STORAGE AND PRESSURE MAINTAINER FOR WELL PUMPS Filed May 12, 1969 ATTORNEY/5 avdq m w g ww w United States Patent 3,515,172 WATER STORAGE AND PRESSURE MAINTAINER FOR WELL PUMPS Charles E. Hahn, Jr., 5138 Red Cedar Court, St. Louis, Mo. 63128 Continuation-impart of application Ser. No. 770,218, Oct. 24, 1968. This application May 12, 1969, Ser. No. 823,757

Int. Cl. F04b 11/00; E03b 11/16 US. Cl. 137-798 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION This application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 770,218, filed Oct. 24, 1968. There have been various water reservoirs and pulsation dampeners, but this water storage and pressure maintainer is especially designed for use with a jet-type well pump. The Water storage and pressure maintainer is connected between the pump' and the jet injector that operates with the pump. Both the pump and the jet injector are of any conventional design.

The water storage and pressure maintainer comprises identical upper and lower manifolds that are of cast iron. Each manifold has two separate chambers isolated from one another by internal partitions formed in the casting. A central pipe connects the first chamber of the upper manifold to the identical chamber in the lower manifold; An elastic tube, which is mounted to surround the central pipe but is spaced therefrom, is connected between the manifolds in communication with the second chamber of each manifold. A pipe fromthe first chamber of the upper manifold-connects to the suction inlet of the pump, and a pipe from the identical chamber of the lower manifold connects to the outlet from the jet injector. Apipe from the other chamber of the upper manifold connects to the discharge outlet of the pump, and a pipe from the identical chamber of the lower manifold connects tothe inlet of the jet injector. l r

The elastic tube is clamped. to the manifold, and there are ferrules to prevent localization of bending stresses when the tube expands and contracts. The elastictube conveys a high speed stream of water from the pump to the jet injector with the delivery stream of water being isolated in the second chamber of each manifold from the first chamber of that manifold. As the pumped water flows into the elastic tube, the elastic tube'expands under the increasing pressure to create a reservoir for supplying water to the water demand area when the pump is not operating. Theelastic tube also acts as a pulsation dampener when the pump does operate. Well water flows upwardly from the jet injector through the central pipe. The well water flows through the first chamber of each manifold.

This water storage and pressure maintainer can be connected directly to a jet-type pump. The water storage and pressure maintainer of this invention also eliminates the necessity for a separate storage tank and a special tank house. The waterv storage and pressure maintainer may be installed anywhere and preferably is installed within the well casing.

This water storage and pressure maintainer is economical to manufacture and use. It has few components, and the identical form of the upper and lower manifold castings reduces manufacturing costs.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a side elevation view of the water storage and pressure maintainer shown installed in a well casing between a jet pump and a jet injector. The jet pump and the jet injector are shown in dotted lines and the well casing is shown in longitudinal medial section.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view in longitudinal medial section of the water storage and pressure maintainer.

FIG. 3 is a view in section taken along the line 33 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary view in section similar to the lower half of FIG. 2 but showing the expandable tube in expanded condition.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION As shown in FIG. 1, this water storage and pressure maintainer 10 is positioned within a well casing 11 extending below the ground G. There is a casing cover 12 having'openings 13 and 14 through which two pipes 15 and 16 extend. The pipes 15 and 16 are connected to a conventional jet-type pump 17 and are also connected to the water storage and pressure maintainer 10 in a manner to be described. Two other pipes 18 and 19 lead from the water storage and pressure maintainer 10 to a conventional jet injector 20. The jet pump 17 with its jet injector 20 operates in the conventional way to deliver pumped water through the pipes 15 and 18 to the jet injector 20 with the pipes 16 and 19 carrying water from the jet injector 20 back to the pump 17. The jet injector 20 is of the conventional type that has a suitable check valve incorporated in its lower housing 21.

As shown in FIG. 2, the water storage and pressure maintainer 10 has upper and lower manifolds 24 and 25. The manifolds 24 and 25 are identical iron castings. The upper casting 24 has a top wall 26, a cylindrical side Wall 27, and a bottom wall 28. The bottom wall 28 has a section 29 of reduced diameter with external threads 30, and a still smaller diameter sleeve 31 extends downwardly from the section 29.

There are two internally threaded openings 32 and 33 through the top wall 26 into which the pipes 15 and 16 respectively are threaded. The pipe 15 opens into a chamber 34, and the pipe 16 opens into a chamber 35. The

chambers 34 and 35 are isolated from one another by an inclined partition 36 that extends laterally between opposite sides of the cylindrical wall 27. The partition 36 begins at its upper end 37 from a juncture with the top wall 26 and extends in a plane that inclines toward the chamber 34 and terminates in a juncture with a horizontal partition 38. The horizontal partition 38 extends horizontally from the inclined partition 36 to a thickened section 39 of the cylindrical side wall 27.

An opening 40 through the sleeve 31 communicates with a lateral passage 41 below the horizontal partition 38. The lateral passage 41 in turn communicates with the chamber 34. The horizontal partition 38 extends across and defines the upper end of the opening 40 as clearly shown at FIG. 2 so that a threaded opening 42 in the horizontal partition 38 can be located over the opening 40.

As already stated, the the lower casting 25 is identical to the upper casting 24. In this respect, the lower casting 25 has a lower wall 45, a cylindrical side Wall 46, and an upper Wall 47 with a reduced diameter section 48 having external threads 49 and with a still smaller diameter sleeve 50 extending upwardly from the reduced diameter section 48. There are internally threaded holes 51 and 52 through the bottom wall 45 into which the pipes 18 and 19 are threaded, and these pipes 18 and 19 communicate with separate chambers 53 and 54. The chambers 53 and 54 are isolated by an inclined partition 55 and a horizontal partition 56, the horizontal partition 56 joining or merging with a thickened section 57 of the cylindrical side wall 46. There is an opening 58 through the sleeve 50 that communicates with a lateral passage 59, the lateral passage 59 communicating with the chamber 53. The horizontal partition 56 has a threaded hole 60 through it that is located under the opening 58.

A commercially available one-inch galvanized pipe 62 having standard pipe threads at its ends 63 and 64 is threaded into the holes 42 and 60 that are in the horizontal partitions 38 and 56 of the upper and lower castings 24 and 25. In the preferred embodiment, the pipe 62 is about 53 inches long, but this length may be varied depending upon the desired capacity for the water storage and pressure maintainer 10.

A tube 66 of natural or synthetic rubber is connected between the upper and lower castings 24 and 25. The tube 66 is, in the preferred embodiment, 48 inches long with a wall thickness of one-half inch and an internal diameter of 2 /8 inches. The hardness of the rubber for the tube 66 is within the range of 55 to 65 durometer. The tube 66 is mounted with its wall surrounding the pipe 62 and with its ends 67 and 68 mounted on the sleeves 31 and 50, respectively, of the upper and lower castings 24 and 25. There are conventional steel banding straps or clamps 69 and 70 for clamping the ends 67 and 68 of the tube 66 to the sleeves 31 and 50. Also, there is a ferrule 71 threaded onto the reduced section 29 of the bottom wall 28 of the upper casting 24. The ferrule has an annular skirt '72 surrounding the upper end 67 of the tube 66 and extending below the clamp 69. An identical ferrule 73 is threaded onto the reduced section 48 of the upper wall 47 of the casting 25, with an annular skirt 74 extending upwardly and surrounding the end 68 of the tube 66 and extending above the clamp 70.

OPERATION As the high-speed stream of water is driven by the pump 17 into the pipe 15, that water flows from the pipe into the chamber 34. From the chamber 34, the water flows into the tube 66. Because of the partitions 36 and 38, this stream of water is isolated from the chamber 35 and cannot flow to the pipe 62. The high speed stream of water flows through the tube 66 and into the chamber 53 of the lower casting 25. Again, the partitions 55 and 56 isolate the water in the chamber 53 from the chamber 54. The delivery water stream flows from the chamber 53 to the pipe 18 by which it is delivered to the jet injector. Water is returned from the well through the pipe 19, the chamber 54, the pipe 62, the chamber 35 and the pipe 16.

The pump 17 is operated by the conventional pressure switches (not shown) to start when the pressure in the pipe 15 drops to a predetermined low value and to stop when the pressure in the pipe 15 increases to a predetermined high value. When the pump has operated to fully expand the tube 66 to the position shown in FIG. 4, the high pressure level will have been reached, and the pump 17 will stop. Now, there is a reservoir of water within the expanded tube 6 6 that is available for supply to the demand area until the pump again operates. As the pumped water flows from the reservoir provided by the expanded tube 66, the pressure within the tube 66 progressively drops, and the tube 66 progressively contracts until it finally reaches the condition illustrated in FIG. 2. In this condition, the water pressure reaches the low pressure setting at which the pump 17 again starts.

In addition to acting as a water reservoir, the rubber tube 66 also acts as a pulsation dampener during opera- 4 tion of the pump 17 so that water which is supplied to the jet injector 20 is supplied at substantially uniform pressure.

As the rubber tube 66 flexes outwardly and inwardly with alternate operations of the pump 17 and consumption of water, its ends 67 and 68 are held in place by the clamps 69 and 70'. In addition, the skirts 72 and 74 of the ferrules 71 and 73, in extending past the clamps 69 and 70, substantially reduce localization of the areas where bending of the tube 66 occurs.

What is claimed is:

1. A water storage and pressure maintainer for use with a jet-type pump comprising an upper manifold, a first chamber in the upper manifold, a second chamber in the upper manifold, means isolating the first and second chambers from one another, means to connect a pipe for delivering a high speed stream of water from the pump to the first chamber, means for connecting a pipe to deliver well water from the second chamber to the pump, the second manifold having first and second chambers isolated from one another, means to connect a pipe for delivering supply Water from the first chamber to a j t injector, means for connecting a pipe for delivering well water from the jet injector to the second chamber of the second manifold, a central pipe communicating with the second chamber of the first manifold and the second chamber of the second manifold, an elastic expandable member connected between the manifolds surrounding and in spaced relation to the central pipe, the expandable member defining a water passage around the central pipe for the flow of pumped delivery water from the first manifold to the second manifold, the elastic member being expandable during operation of the pump to an increased volume for storing water and being flexible to operate as a pulsation dampener during operation of the pump.

2. The water storage and pressure maintainer of claim I wherein the manifolds are of identical configuration and each is of cast iron.

3. The water storage and pressure maintainer of claim 1 including means to clamp one end of the expandable member to the first manifold and means to clamp the other end of the expandable member to the second manifold, and means to reduce localization of bending stresses around the clamping means during expansion and contraction of the expandable member.

4. The water storage and pressure maintainer of claim 2 wherein each casting has an end wall, a cylindrical side wall, a lateral partition extending from the end wall and inclined relative to the axis of the side wall, a horizontal partition extending between the inclined partition and a side of the cylindrical wall, the second chamber being defined by the said side of the cylindrical wall, the horizontal partition, the inclined partition and the end wall.

5. The water storage and pressure maintainer of claim 4 wherein each casting has an opening through its end opposite the said end wall, the first chamber communicating with the said opening.

6. The water storage and pressure maintainer of claim 5 wherein the horizontal partition has a threaded opening for receiving an end of the said pipe, the threaded opening being aligned wtih the said opening through the manifold.

7. The water storage and pressure maintainer of claim 6 wherein the expandable member is rubb r of about 55-65 durometer hardness.

8. The water storage and pressure maintainer of claim 7 wherein the wall thickness of the tube is about one-half inch.

9. A water storage and pressure maintainer comprising a pair of tubes, one tube surrounding but being spaced from the other, an upper manifold connected to the upper ends of the tubes, a lower manifold connected to the lower ends of the tubes, a first chamber in the upper manifold communicating with the inner tube, a first chamber in the lower manifold communicating with the inner tube,

a second chamber in the lower manifold communicating with the space between the inner and outer tubes, at second chamber in the upper manifold communicating with the said space, and means to isolate the chambers of each manifold from one another, one of the tubes being expandable, means to pump water to one chamber of the upper manifold, means to deliver well water from the other chamber of the upper manifold to the pump, a jet injector, and means to deliver water from one chamber of the lower manifold to the jet injector and return well water to the other chamber of the lower manifold.

10. The water storage and pressure maintainer of claim 9 wherein the outer tube is expandable rubber.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2/1956 Schaefer 103-223 7/1968 Jacuzzi 137-56 8 

